26o	ARABIA PETRJSA	[damascus
positing a certain amount of gold or silver with the
banks and getting the administration to let it be
known that Egyptian notes up to some small maxi-
mum, say five pounds,, would be cashed in gold on
demand. A very long queue would have pre-
sented itself on the first day, three or four hundred
people on the second, and no one on the third. We
were paying Feisal a large subsidy in gold on the
first of each month, some proportion if not the
whole of which might just as well be paid in paper,
once the paper currency was established.
For some reason which I have never been able to
fathom, this suggestion was turned down by G.H.Q.
Not only was it turned down, but an official telegram
was sent to General Chauvel ordaining that the
Egyptian note must be accepted at its face value,
and no higher prices paid for supplies than those
laid down in General Routine Order No. XYZ
issued at Jerusalem on some date in the preceding
August. It was one thing for G.H.Q,. to lay down
that the Egyptian note must be accepted at its face
value, and quite another for me to induce the con-
tractors of Damascus or the Sherifian Supply De-
partment, with whom I had many dealings, to bow
to this decree. Neither of them, in fact, paid the
slightest attention to it, and the result was that the
second part of the order had simply to be ignored.
It was difficult enough in any case to get the amount
of stuff the Corps wanted, and there was no alterna-
tive but to buy it at the lowest price at which it was
obtainable.
I went on gaily doing this for some time, when I
was suddenly summoned to Corps Headquarters to
see the Q,.M.G. himself, who had come up at the
first opportunity to inspect the supply and trans-